Algeria hostage crisis: five foreigners missing in Sahara desert

The search is on for five foreigners unaccounted for from the terrorist attack on the Algerian natural gas site, with fears that they may be lost in the Sahara desert.

Many foreigners escaped from the site during the attack and were found by the army wandering through the desertPhoto: AFP

3:10PM GMT 22 Jan 2013

An Algerian official, a member of Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal's office, said the missing foreigners may have tried to escape into the desert and got lost.

An al-Qaeda-affiliated band of fighters attacked the vast natural gas complex last week and 37 hostages, including an Algerian security guard, died in the four day standoff.

Many foreigners escaped from the site during the attack and were found by the army wandering through the desert, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

Work at the plant meanwhile is said to have begun, but it will take about a week for everything to return to normal, a source told the AFC News agency.

Meanwhile a well-informed source told AFP that militants who seized an Algerian gas plant before they were killed received logistical aid from Islamists in Libya.

"Logistical support was provided from Libya," said the source close to hardline Islamist groups in Libya, which has seen a rise in extremism since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

The source did not specify the exact nature of such aid but acknowledged that Libyan Islamists were responsible for establishing contacts between the captors and the media.

A total of 29 militants were killed and three captured in the siege, which ended in a final showdown on Saturday when Algerian special forces stormed the sprawling gas complex.

Algeria has said its special forces managed to free 685 Algerian and 107 foreign hostages, most of them on Thursday, during their first rescue operation.

Algerian website TSA cited a security source saying the kidnappers had entered Algeria from Libya in official Libyan vehicles, while other outlets argued that the weapons the kidnappers used came from Libya.

When questioned by AFP, Libyan officials simply reiterated the words of their prime minister, Ali Zeidan, who denied that the kidnappers entered Algeria from Libya, saying the Libyan territory was not being used for launching operations that threaten security of neighbouring countries.

Mr Sellal said on Monday that the militants had crossed from northern Mali.

The Libyan source said that Libyan Islamists had no organisational link with the group, "Signatories in Blood" which led the four-day siege of the gas complex.

The group is led by one-eyed Mokhtar Belmokhtar, one of the founders of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Belmokhtar left al-Qaeda in October to create his own group.

Jaber al-Abidi, an analyst, has no doubt Libyans were involved.

"It is clear that there is a link between Libyan extremist groups and those who led the In Amenas operation," said Jaber al-Obeidi, an analyst and political activist.

"Libyan extremists are present in northern Mali and helped carry weapons from Libya after the fall of the regime" of Kadhafi, he added.

The "Signatories in Blood" group had said that its attack on the gas complex was in retaliation for French intervention in northern Mali.

Mr Sellal dismissed this, saying the assault had been planned for nearly two months, long before France intervened in northern Mali.

According to the Libyan source, the Islamists who attacked the gas facility entered Mali "transiting through Niger and Libya from the Salvador triangle," a barren stretch of desert that borders Libya, Algeria and Niger.